From the moment Mu Xueshi stepped inside, the Third Prince’s gaze never once left him.
Being stared at so intently made Mu Xueshi’s scalp prickle with unease.
“What did Wu Cai want with you just now?” the Third Prince asked coldly.
Mu Xueshi froze. A knot of worry formed in his chest.
Truthfully, there was nothing particularly serious about the matter. He could have told the Third Prince without much consequence. Yet for some reason, his instincts warned him that the prince would be angry if he heard it.
He stole several glances at the prince but kept his mouth shut.
Under the Third Prince’s increasingly pressing gaze, Mu Xueshi finally gave up and hastily fabricated an excuse to brush the matter aside.
“Actually, he just came to thank me for saving his life yesterday… Ah, right! Let’s keep talking about the case from earlier.”
He quickly changed the subject.
“You said Ning Yue is dead. I think Ning Yue’s death must be connected to this case somehow. Maybe he knew who the real killer was and got silenced because of it. My father has been dead for too long—finding clues from him is practically impossible. Why don’t we start with Ning Yue and investigate from there?”
The Third Prince knew very well that Mu Xueshi’s solemn expression was entirely an act. Whenever Mu Xueshi felt nervous, his hands would unconsciously clench into tight fists.
The prince gave a faint, cold chuckle but did not expose him.
To him, whether Mu Xueshi’s antics were big or small, the outcome would ultimately be the same. In fact, if Mu Xueshi caused trouble through excessive mischief, it would only give the prince a legitimate excuse to punish him.
“Yes,” the Third Prince said with a nod.
“We should indeed begin with Ning Yue.”
Mu Xueshi secretly breathed a sigh of relief and even allowed himself a brief, smug grin. But the moment he noticed the prince still watching him, he hurriedly wiped the smile from his face.
“So… when did Ning Yue die?” he asked.
“Two weeks ago,” the Third Prince replied.
The moment Mu Xueshi heard this, something suddenly clicked in his mind. His expression changed dramatically.
Steward Wang and the Third Prince both assumed he had discovered some crucial clue, and their gazes immediately locked onto him.
Instead—
Mu Xueshi suddenly wailed miserably.
Grabbing the Third Prince’s arm, he cried out in distress.
“Two weeks ago—didn’t you beat that servant? I remember his name was Ning Yue! Did he die from the injuries you gave him?”
The Third Prince had not expected Mu Xueshi’s memory to be so sharp.
Back then, in order to test him, the prince had deliberately ordered a servant—who was merely pretending to be someone else—to receive quite a few strokes of the rod.
Before the prince could answer, Mu Xueshi had already spiraled into panic.
He began pacing around the room like a trapped animal.
“I regret it so much! If that’s true, then I’m the one who caused such an important witness to die!”
With that, Mu Xueshi began pounding his own head repeatedly with his small fists, his face twisted in agony as if his intestines had turned green with regret.
Watching his frantic display, the Third Prince didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
At first he had intended to ignore Mu Xueshi altogether, but the man looked as if he might fling himself headfirst into a wall at any moment.
With a few long strides, the prince stepped forward and grabbed hold of him.
“Stop this nonsense.”
At the prince’s reprimand, Mu Xueshi immediately quieted.
His large eyes blinked slowly as he looked at the Third Prince, his expression filled with gloom.
“I’m really useless…”
“The man who was beaten that day was not Ning Yue,” the Third Prince said calmly.
“What?!”
Mu Xueshi swallowed hard and stared blankly at him.
“So you were just playing with me back then?”
The Third Prince offered no reply.
Mu Xueshi’s eyes instantly widened in fury. He raised his head, ready to shout at the top of his lungs and demand vengeance.
But the moment he opened his mouth—
The Third Prince had already vanished.
Mu Xueshi spun around and looked everywhere.
The prince was no longer in the room.
“Hmph… I hit my own head so many times for nothing? Even if I was the one who did it, I still have to get that back…”
Muttering angrily to himself, Mu Xueshi bolted out of the room like a young colt, leaving a cloud of dust in his wake.
Steward Wang stared blankly at the now-empty hall, taking a long while to regain his composure.
When the Third Prince spoke with him, the man was cold and terrifying—so chilling it made one’s bones shiver.
But the moment Young Master Mu entered the room, the prince’s expression had twisted through countless changes.
Steward Wang had never realized his young master possessed such astonishing influence.
“Come out! Come out here!!”
Mu Xueshi ran circles through the Grand Tutor’s manor, but the Third Prince was nowhere to be seen.
Furious, he shouted into every corner and questioned the servants, yet none of them had seen the prince.
Meanwhile, all the servants in the manor had turned their attention to Mu Xueshi.
In the past, he rarely left his room, and many servants had barely even heard him speak. Now, seeing his behavior, they could only stare in stunned disbelief.
Some even assumed that his long imprisonment and torture had driven him mad.
Being the observant sort, Mu Xueshi eventually ran to the stables.
There he discovered that the fine steed the Third Prince usually rode was gone.
His face instantly changed color.
The prince had left without even saying a word—after teasing him like that. Wasn’t that just adding insult to injury?
Grinding his teeth, Mu Xueshi thought bitterly:
Normally, whenever he did something wrong, the Third Prince would punish him.
But this time, the prince had wronged him instead.
By all rights, he deserved a scolding too.
With that thought, Mu Xueshi dashed out of the Grand Tutor’s manor and followed the road they had taken earlier, relying entirely on memory.
Even if he had to run all the way back, he would see this through.
Not only for revenge—
There was something even more important.
Today was the fifteenth day of the lunar month. If he didn’t return in time to guard the blooming of the Yinglan Flower, the Third Prince might have to endure the torment again.
As he ran, Mu Xueshi muttered under his breath.
Soon he was panting heavily.
Worse still, waves of sharp pain began to throb from his lower body.
If he walked slowly, it wasn’t so bad. But running like this made it feel as if his body were being split cleanly in two.
Finally, unable to endure it any longer, he stopped in what looked like a small garden.
Because of the discomfort in his body, he couldn’t even sit down and could only stand there awkwardly, glancing around.
The sun was sinking toward the horizon.
Sweat dripped down his forehead one drop after another.
The scenery around him was gentle and pleasant, yet an inexplicable unease suddenly crept into his heart.
Where was this place?
Had he gotten lost?
Mu Xueshi wandered through the garden for a long while. Wildflowers as tall as half a man grew thickly around him, while colorful butterflies danced among them.
It should have been a peaceful and comforting sight.
Yet Mu Xueshi felt increasingly unsettled.
Clenching his fists tightly, he shouted toward the flowerbeds:
“Xi! I curse you to fall off your horse on the way back!”
“Is that so?”
A familiar voice suddenly answered.
Mu Xueshi whipped around and saw the Third Prince standing there, wearing a faint, amused smile.
At once he felt both furious and delighted.
Grabbing the prince by the shoulders, he shook him vigorously.
“Did you do this on purpose?! You made me run all this way for nothing—turns out you’ve been following me the whole time!”
The Third Prince snorted coldly, showing no intention of apologizing.
Instead, he said mockingly:
“This place is merely the Grand Tutor manor’s rear garden. Though it stands separately in the mountain meadow, it lies no more than a hundred paces from the manor.”
“…Uh.”
Mu Xueshi instantly looked embarrassed.
Stretching his neck to glance back down the path he had taken, he curled his lips and muttered:
“Don’t talk nonsense. You’re just doubting my abilities.”
Futile Devices Scans 
Leave a comment